Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/85

 MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. 67 cau(v)etone (anno 1085); Lanceston (1154-1 189); Lanstone (1227); Lanstaueton, Lanceueton (1245); Launcetton (1260); Lanstone (1 270) ; Launceuaton (1274); Lanceueston (1288); Launceueton, Lanceueton (1300); Launeston, Lanceueton, Lanceveton (1380) ; Launceston (1414) ; Laneston (1440); Launceston (1447, 1521) ; Lawnceston (1524) ; Lanson (rarely), Lanceston (more frequently), and (generally) Launceston, from 1524 to 1884. Herr Miiller, one of the able recent classical masters at Dunheved College, having carefully compared the first and second syllables of the name with a great many German and Saxon prefixes, and added the well-known signification of ton, suggests that the meaning of the whole word is, " the Chief Tow?i of the District." Whether this definition be accurate or not, we have never found in an original document the fanciful names " Lanstuphadon," or " Lan- cestertown," which some preceding historians have fur- nished for the place. By a single step we now get into Old Dunheved.